The present invention relates to dosing bottles for dispensing metered amounts of liquids stored therein.
Synthetic resin bottles are widely employed for storing various types of liquid. Such a bottle may include a fitment which will function to deliver a metered amount of the contents, and such bottles are frequently referred to as dosing bottles.
Generally, such bottles involve a fitment which seals the neck finish of the bottle.
To ensure delivery of the proper volume of liquid, it is important that the fitment be precisely positioned in the neck finish. To provide greater control of the dimensioning, the preforms are injection molded with a controlled neck finish portion, and the fitment must be positioned within the neck finish to control volume.
When the preform is inserted into the stretch blow mold, air is introduced under pressure to cause the side walls to blow outwardly. The blowing pressure can produce distortion of the injection molded neck finish, and any distortion will produce some variation in the amount of liquid which is intended to be dispensed in metered doses.
Moreover, some prior art dosing bottles employ fairly complicated structures to seat the fitment.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide a method for making a dosing bottle wherein the neck finish of the bottle is closely controlled and protected against deformation.
It is also an object to provide such a method which is adaptable to different dosing volumes.
Another object is to provide a novel dosing bottle wherein the fitment can be securely positioned by friction and the volume of the doses is repeatable.
A preform can be molded to very close high tolerances, particularly with respect to the neck finish portion. By the process of the present invention, the preform is placed in the blow mold and the neck finish is sealed about its periphery so that the pressurized air does not effect any distortion of the neck finish.
The volume to be dispensed can be varied by the selection of fitments of various dimensions. The fitment firmly seats on an internal shoulder of the neck finish and the fitment is pushed downwardly so that its periphery frictionally engages in the neck finish.
The process of assembly is thus fairly simple and reliable as to placement of the next finish and the volume thereabove.
Thus, it can be seen that the method of the present invention is one which can be practiced readily and reliably to produce a dosing bottle in which the fitment is securely positioned within the neck finish, thus, ensuring the delivery of the desired volume of liquid in each dose.